Holocaust Denial: A Global Survey - 2003

by Alex Grobman & Rafael Medoff

The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
On the campus of Gratz College
7605 Old York RoadMelrose Park, PA 19027
tel (215) 635-5622 / fax (215) 635-5644
www.WymanInstitute.org

Table of Contents

North America
Europe
Middle East
Australia
Malaysia
New Zealand

Executive Summary: Holocaust Denial - A Global Survey:2003

Holocaust denial activity decreased in the United States during 2003, but continued full force in government-sponsored media in Arab countries and the Palestinian Authority.

The decrease in the United States was due to the ongoing legal conflicts between the two major U.S. promoters of Holocaust denial, the Institute for Historical Review and Liberty Lobby founder Willis Carto. At the same time, British Holocaust-denier David Irving maintained an active presence on the U.S. lecture circuit throughout the year, speaking in at least twenty-five cities.

Other notable developments in 2003:

* For the first time ever, a Holocaust denier was invited to the White House. Palestinian Authority prime minister Mahmoud Abbas, author of a book denying the Holocaust, visited the White House in July 2003.

* A prominent former United States Senator, Mike Gravel (D-Alaska), appeared as a speaker at the June 2003 conference of a Holocaust-deniers' publication, The Barnes Review.

* The leader of a major Muslim country, Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohammed, publicly affirmed that the Holocaust occurred. However, he did so in a speech alleging Jewish control of the world, and it was that theme, not his acknowledgment of the Holocaust, which attracted attention.

About the Authors

Alex Grobman, Ph.D., president of the Institute for Contemporary Jewish Life and the Brenn Institute, is co-author (with Michael Sherman) of Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? and author of Rekindling the Flame: Jewish Chaplains in the U.S. Army and the Survivors of the Holocaust. He was the founding director of the St. Louis Holocaust Museum and Learning Center , and served as director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles where he was the founding editor-in chief of the Simon Wiesenthal Annual. He edited Genocide: Critical Issues of the Holocaust; Anne Frank in Historical Perspective; and Those Who Dared: Rescuers and Rescued.

Rafael Medoff, Ph.D., is director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies. He is associate editor of the scholarly journal American Jewish History and Visiting Scholar at Purchase College - The State University of New York. He is the author of seven books on the Holocaust, Zionism, and the history of American Jewry, the most recent of which (co-authored with David S. Wyman) is A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America, and the Holocaust. His essays have appeared in numerous scholarly journals, encyclopedias, and other reference volumes, including Holocaust & Genocide Studies, the Journal of Genocide Research, and Holocaust Studies Annual.

The entire survey can be viewed at
http://www.wymaninstitute.org/denialreport/2003.php